Crucible of Sympathetic Agony
Mendacamina, Ceoris's chief torturer, performs much of her ministrations using perfectly mundane and effective techniques. She has, however, bent her thaumaturgic talents to pushing back the frontiers of pain and persuasion. Crucible of Sympathetic Agony disassociates the torture victim's body from his pain, hence getting around many mental strongholds. It is ideally suited to creating obedience but does have other uses.
Two victims are placed together on a long iron-shod bed so that their feet touch. The ritualist sews the soles of their feet together. If the victims are capable of orgasm, assistants work to stimulate each, with the object of bringing them to ecstasy at the same moment. If the ritualist has a Cainite collaborator, the two of them simultaneously feed from the subjects when climax comes so as to intensify the effect. Then the thaumaturge begins to torture one subject with implements that have been bathed in alchemical salts and vapors.
The second subject feels all of the agony suffered by the first, but remains physically unharmed. The suffering of the first subject batters down any resistance he could otherwise muster against cracking under torture. If the first victim is slain, the second feels what it is like to die.
System: If the thaumaturge is using the ritual as a simple aid to torture, successes on the player's ritual roll add to his dice pool for a subsequent torture or interrogation roll. If the ritual is used to create simple obedience, however, the ritual roll itself is opposed by a Willpower roll from the victim's player. If the ritualist obtains any net successes, the victim agrees to carry out whatever instructions the thaumaturge issues to him, short of killing himself outright. If the thaumaturge's successes exceed the victim's by two or more, she can, at will, re-evoke the pain experienced by the victim during the height of the ritual, provided she can make eye contact with him.
If the thaumaturge's orders place the victim in immediate mortal danger, the Storyteller may allow a second Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to resist the commands until the danger passes. A victim under orders has a broken will and although not in a trance per se, appears listless and spent.
